Policy for take-over bid

Press, 2 October 1979, Page 18

Policy for take-over bid

Sir, —According to the advertisement from the Mount Cook Group, Ltd (“The Press,” Sept. 22) one of the objectives of the group’s take-over bid for Allied Press, which owns both Dunedin daily newspapers, is “moni-

toring the editorial policy in the local interest. This will' effectively maintain for the Otago community the correct degree of influence over the free enterprise news media.” I find this objective intolerable in a free country. A newspaper editor should be able to write what he thinks, and not be subjec. to undue pressures to modify the views expressed in his editorials, no matter from which direction these pressures come.— Yours, etc.,

P. KELLER, Greymouth. September 23, 1979.

[Mr E. G. Beckett, public affairs manager for the Mount Cook Group, Ltd, replies: “There is no suggestion that any form of control on editorial policy would be exercised by the publishing board proposed for Allied Press, should their board accept the offer of the Mount Cook Group, Ltd. The board would be concerned with the commercial viability, general appeal and value to the community of any publishing proposals and this is clarified in a second advertisement to shareholders. On September 13 our group general manager, Mr P. S. Phillips, also went on record as saying, *. .. the day management takes over editorial it’s bad news.’ We would also point out that your correspondent’s letter first appeared in the ‘Otago Daily Times’ on September 26.”]